The Research Education and Training Core (RETC) of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center for Health Disparities Research will to develop the next generation of health disparities researchers and scholars through research training and education that supports the overall mission of the Center and study aims for both the Research and Community/Outreach Cores, which are to contribute to the reduction and ultimate elimination of health disparities among the ethnic minority populations of the Southwest Border. The training of early career faculty and students will support knowledge development to better understand the social, psychological, and biological determinants of health disparities and the intersections of cultural processes such as immigration and acculturation in affecting health disparities. RETC will achieve four aims: 1) to recruit students from Mexican-American, American Indian, and African American populations into appropriate levels of health disparities training and education, with the overall objective of developing a cohort of young scholars who will advance to higher levels of health training and education and become health researchers and/or professional practitioners serving currently underserved client populations. 2) to utilize SIRC senior faculty as Senior Mentors to provide guidance as described below, to the early career faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students from among Mexican- American, American Indian, and African American populations. 3) to provide health disparities education and training that promotes cultural competence for effective health research and service delivery with members of the noted Southwest Border's ethnic populations. 4) to disseminate the Center's research findings within the underserved communities, both for their intrinsic usefulness for the health of community members, and as a tool for recruitment of new health researchers from within those communities. We propose to deliver a distinct interdisciplinary and interconnected education/ training programs to early career faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students. The senior faculty of the Center will participate as Senior Mentors in guiding this research education and training. The director of RETC will direct, coordinate, and facilitate this effort.